Getting Mac OS X up and running on a computer without an Apple label has always been a bit of a hassle. You needed customised Mac OS X disks, updates would ruin all your hard work, and there was lots of fiddling with EFI and the likes. Ever since the release of boot-132, this is no longer the case. Read on for how setting up a "Hack"intosh really is as easy as 1, 3, 2.

I disagree. It is perfectly legal to modify Darwin code as one sees fit. If Apple's copy-protection scheme for OS X relies upon Darwin, it cannot legally enforce that scheme, since doing so would violate the terms of Darwin's open-source license.

In other words, Apple can't put code into Darwin, declare that code part of its OS X copy-protection scheme, and assert that it is thus illegal for other developers to alter that code. If Apple even attempted such a thing, it would by definition amount to a licensing violation -- and thus would be unenforceable.

If Apple's copy-protection scheme does not rely upon Darwin, then modifying Darwin does not qualify as circumvention in the first place.

And hardware-based protection is a moot point. If you're using non-Apple commodity hardware, then there is no firmware-based protection to work around -- and thus no circumvention.

The real legal issue here, IMO, is the Apple EULA for OS X. I strongly suspect that by "labeling," Apple is not simply referring to a cutesy decal on the system case. Rather, in this case, "labeling" is shorthand for "Apple-branded," or in other words, Apple-proprietary hardware.

I certainly wouldn't want to discourage anyone from pursuing this experiment -- software EULAs are generally a revolting species of legal monster, and Apple's EULAs are no exception. And this presents absolutely no threat -- none -- to Apple's business, since there is zero chance this kind of hack will cost the company any paying customers. But really, I think it's a mistake to take the world "label" too literally in this context.

IANAL -- but then again, I don't charge $400 an hour for my opinion, either :-)